HIGHLAND PARK — Attention upscale shoppers in Dallas-Fort Worth: There’s another shopping center nearby that is interested in you, regardless of where you live.

Highland Park Village is courting shoppers from a broader area this Christmas season, sending out 52,000 direct-mail brochures this week to neighborhoods outside the Highland Park bubble with pockets of wealth.

In the 31/2 years since it’s had new owners, the 81-year-old shopping center has gotten decidedly younger and intentionally more exclusive while still serving as something of a town square. If a store is deemed too ordinary (Banana Republic) or technologically out-of-date (Cooter’s Village Camera), it’s gone.

Located at the corner of Preston Road and Mockingbird Lane, Highland Park Village is a unique collection of locally owned stores and restaurants and top fashion names, including Stella McCartney, Trina Turk and Diane von Furstenberg. Christian Dior is opening early next year in the Cooter’s space, joining top-end luxury shops such as Hermès, Chanel and Harry Winston.

The new generation of owner-operators has upped the shopping ante by adding pop-up stores to the mix. They’re also reinventing the size of the luxury boutique, throwing out the traditional shopping center lease and extending the center’s hours till 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

“We’re not a REIT with strict requirements for leasing. We can create flexible terms,” said Stephen Summers, 38, who runs leasing and co-owns the center with his wife, Elisa, 37, and Ray and Heather Washburne, who are 52 and 40.

The two couples, daughters and sons-in-law of Dallas oilman Al Hill Jr., paid $170 million for the 250,000-square-foot shopping center in 2009, buying it from the extended families and investment partners of Henry S. Miller Jr.

They have stepped up marketing and asked tenants to contribute to marketing costs for the first time. For fall, the center launched a quarterly magazine and hired a fashion writer. The spring issue is being shot in New York.

“We’re in our periods of life where our families are heavy consumers” and understand what their peers in the neighborhood want from the center, Washburne said.

Small stores, big sales

Summers has been carving up spaces to offer smaller stores that a mall can’t accommodate. He says the result is even higher sales per square foot.

He uses the example of the space that used to house Banana Republic. The 8,200-square-foot store has been split in three, with Christian Louboutin and Diane von Furstenberg already open and Yves Saint Laurent coming in the spring.

“The combined sales will be 61/2 times the volume that Banana Republic did,” Summers said. “What works for us is a one-of-a-kind retailer, not one with multiple locations.”

The new team has attracted Forty Five Ten co-owner Brian Bolke, whose boutique on McKinney Avenue is nationally known. He opened a 650-square-foot store called Five and Ten in Highland Park Village in February.

“At first we had a temporary lease. It’s just smart to start out that way,” Bolke said. “They’re very sensitive about keeping a balance with best of class both locally and globally. For the Village to be special, it has to have both.”

Bolke and Dana Card, co-founder of A Pea in the Pod, are creating a lifestyle boutique and organic juice bar called Number One/Le Jus that just opened in the former Centennial liquor store space facing Preston Road. Crews uncovered old flooring and tall windows that were part of an old soda fountain. “It’s a super space,” he said.

Rag & Bone is opening a pop-up store in December with a six-month lease. That way the contemporary men’s and women’s New York-based clothing boutique can test the market without a big lease commitment. It’s moving into space that had been occupied by upscale electronics chain Bang & Olufsen, whose biggest problem may have been that it wasn’t an Apple store.

Summers also persuaded longtime tenant St. John to give up half of its 4,200 square feet of space to make room for Swiss apparel boutique Akris. St. John’s sales haven’t suffered, he said.

Alexander McQueen is opening its first Texas boutique in the center next spring. The Scoop NYC space is being divided in half to make room.

“We can give someone like a Lela Rose only 600 square feet if that’s all she needs,” Washburne said.

A few flops

Summers said that Highland Park Village had an overall 12 percent increase in sales over the last year.

Some stores, however, haven’t been a good fit. French men’s and boys’ swimming trunks store Vilebrequin didn’t make it at nearby NorthPark Center and had a short life at Highland Park Village, too. But Billy Reid made the same move into a smaller Village shop and that’s working out great, according to Washburne, who is a customer of the American designer.

Summers said he can’t talk about the Rugby store, which is closing soon. Ralph Lauren Corp. said this month that it’s shutting down the 14-store chain but hasn’t said when.

Washburne and Summers won’t say how much they’ve spent on physical improvements since they bought the center. The work so far includes improving the parking lot, adding trees, remodeling the theater and replacing electrical work throughout.

There’s a new clock tower that the center’s architects, OmniPlan, designed. Customers think it has been there forever.

There’s also more nightlife at the center, developing around Bistro 31 and a new champagne bar with a retractable roof. The Marquee Grill may be the only place in this wealthy neighborhood that stays open until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday for cocktails.

While the center cultivates tenants from Europe, it’s also careful to include local shops, services and restaurants in its mix. Some of its second-level office space is taken up by offices for the Crystal Charity Ball and Cattle Baron’s Ball.